By Klaus Rohrich
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The federal government's budget introduced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is a bald-faced attempt at buying a majority in Parliament, while it sells out the so-called Conservative principles that the Harper government espoused prior to becoming the government. It's almost as if some disease afflicted whatever party might happen to gain the upper hand that causes them to become profligate taxers and spenders.
And so it is with Mr. Flaherty's budget, which gives him the dubious distinction of being the highest spender among all finance ministers in the history of Canada. While the numbers have been carefully massaged to keep the budget at $199.6 billion, just below the $200 billion mark, there is little doubt that government spending will exceed that benchmark by a country mile when all the numbers are in.
And tax relief, that much touted promise that every dollar saved on interest payments from paying down the national debt would be returned to taxpayers in the form of a tax cut, is so negligible that the Canada Revenue Agency wouldn't even send it as a refund as any under or overpayment of less than $2.00 is neither payable nor returned.
Rather than reduce the size of government, the finance minister has decided to increase the size of the federal government, as if we weren't over governed and overregulated enough. Hiring more environmental enforcement officers is creating yet another level of regulatory nightmares for everyone, while their accomplishment to date is dubious at best. Jack Layton might as well have devised Flaherty's budget, as it clearly chucks out Conservative principles, those principles that Conservative voters supported during the last election campaign.
I recall sitting around the dinner table with Flaherty in the spring of 2002 when he was running for the leadership of the Ontario Conservative Party and listening to him rhapsodize about how Canada is on a self destructive spending binge and the only way the country can be saved is to reduce the size of the government and reduce government spending. Ordinary Canadians would thus have more money in their pockets, which in turn would stimulate the economy, resulting in more jobs and greater wealth for everyone. His unassuming manner and his sincerity sold me, as I made the mistake of actually believing what he said. Now it's clear that Flaherty and the Conservative Party of Canada, like all politicians in Canada are only interested in attaining and retaining power and the country can go to hell in a hand basket for all they care. Obviously they believe that the majority of Canadians wants to live under the Liberal model of governance.
For those of us who had hoped that we would see a turnaround in the country's fortunes under a Conservative government there is the grim realization that it isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever. So long as small "c" conservative principles are sacrificed in favor of expediency we will continue to waste nearly 50% of GDP on onerous and inefficient government, a percentage that will continue to grow until we attain the same degree of productivity and efficiency as France or Belgium. But hey, that doesn't really matter so long as being in power is the only thing of importance.
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